A crack compensation strategy for highly stretchable conductors based on liquid metal inclusions

Crack control strategies have been proven very useful for enhancing the stretchability of metal film-based stretchable conductors. However, existing strategies often suffer from the drawbacks of complicated preparation and predefined effective directions. Here, we propose a crack compensation strategy for preparing conductors featured with high stretchability by using liquid metal microparticles (LMMPs)-embedded polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the substrate with a thin film of gold (Au) sputtered on the surface. LMMPs can be elongated to connect the cracked Au film upon stretching, which can form a conductive “island-tunnel” (IT) architecture to compensate for the cracks and maintain the conductivity. The high performance of the stretchable conductor is demonstrated by using it as electrodes to record surface electromyography of human brachioradialis and monitor electrocorticography signals of a rat in normal and epileptic states. The developed strategy shows the potential to provide a new perspective for the fabrication of flexible electronics.